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The War Of 1948

Representations of Israeli and Palestinian Memories and Narratives

Indiana University Press

The 1948 Palestine War on the Small Screen

A Comparative Analysis of Its Representation in Two Israeli Television Series

Bosmat Garami

Introduction

Televised history has become the focus of growing academic research, which examines its uniqueness compared to the tradition of written history, and emphasizes its significant role in shaping collective memory. Film and television became central mechanisms of memory construction during the second half of the twentieth century and Western scholarship has long been emphasizing the power of fictional as well as documentary film in the representation of history and defending television's capabilities to "mediate" history successfully against those who doubt it. According to Edgerton, televisual characteristics such as immediacy, dramatization, personalization, and intimacy, all shape the medium's interaction with the past. Sorlin mentions the potential of television's serials to expose "long durations," describe mental and social processes, and create meaningful encounters with historical figures.

Wars have been particularly attractive as a central subject of prominent television series, both documentary and fiction. From the 1940s' Why We Fight, through the 1970s' The World at War, to Ken Burns's The Civil War, the drama, visuality, and extended impact of war inspired the creation of series that became landmarks in the history of television documentary.

The two Israeli historic-documentary series examined here also have war as a central subject: the 1948 War, a major signpost in the Arab-Israeli ongoing conflict. The series are Amud Ha'esh (Pillar of Fire) and Tkumah (Revival). The series were produced by the state owned Israeli Television Channel One, a generation apart. Pillar of Fire (POF) is a product of the late 1970s, at the apex of Israel's most agonizing years following the traumatic 1973 Yom Kippur War and sense of growing international isolation, which culminated in the 1975 UN Resolution that "Zionism is a form of racism." Its creators' express goal was to explain and justify the Zionist ethos and celebrate the Zionist enterprise. The series covers the period of 1896–1948, from the beginning of political Zionism to the founding of the State of Israel. Each of its 19 chapters is one hour in length. When it was first broadcast in 1981 it earned an 89 percent rating (high even when considering that there was only one channel then).

Tkumah (TK) was produced in the mid-1990s, toward the state's jubilee celebration in 1998, when it was first broadcast. In an era of multi-channel television it still earned a 30 percent rating. Despite the time gap between them, TK was a continuation of POF in that it sought to encompass the first 50 years of Israel. It covers the period from the 1930s, the prologue to the 1948 War, until the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in 1995, which the series perceived as a breakdown of the Oslo process and the loss of hope for its further development. It reviews this period with a critical eye, its creators' declared wish being to express the state's multi-vocality and introduce to the Israeli public hitherto silenced counter-narratives.

The production processes of the two series largely correspond to their ideological approaches. POF is practically the unified creation of its main editor and scriptwriter Yigal Lossin, then director of programming and creator of news magazines and documentary programs and series on Channel 1. TKs 22 one-hour chapters, on the other hand, were created by 19 of the country's leading documentary directors. The series' chief editor, Gideon Drori, was a producer, director, and editor of Channel 1, who had participated as a director-editor in the production of POF at the time. Drori, who passed away in 2005, was also a known civil rights activist. He drew-up general guidelines for TK, but the directors had enough artistic freedom to put together a complex, multi-vocal view of the period.

During the 20-year gap between the two series significant changes affected the Zionist hegemonic master-narrative: its dominant status weakened, especially with the emergence as of the late 1980s of a "new history" of Israel's early years represented by critical young historians, who challenged the Zionist-Israeli foundational assumptions and mythical ethos, especially policies and practices in and around the 1948 war. Drawing on newly released official archives, these historians pointed to Israel's active role in the creation of the Arab-Palestinian refugee problem, triggering broad academic and public controversies.

These changes were expressed in the cultural scene, notably in film and television. Researchers offered the following periodization of Israel's cinematic history: Films about pioneers made before the establishment of the state and the nationalist-heroic cinema that followed the state's birth adhered to the Zionist narrative, including adoration of pioneering and negative approach to Arabs and their narrative. Significant change began in the 1970s and peaked in the 1980s, with what Gertz referred to as "the cinema of the stranger and deviant" or what Shohat called "the Palestinian wave," that gave voice to the Arab-Palestinian and additional "other" protagonists, like new immigrants and Sephardic (Oriental) Jews. Although early harbingers of a different and critical approach were produced much earlier, it took more than a decade before films critical of the Zionist ethos and its realization were proliferating and screened in cinemas and on television. Films such as Khirbat Khiz'ah, Khamsin, and Behind Bars, produced in 1978,1982, and 1984, respectively, exhibit a new approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to the position of the Arab in the Zionist narrative. Simultaneously, history textbooks began to give more expression to the Arab point of view and negative Arab stereotypes diminished. The 1948 War and the Palestinian Arab refugee problem were central subjects of these critical tendencies.

The comparative study here places POF and TK within this changing Israeli reality. It uses narratological-semiotic research tools for analysis of the televisual text, with the purpose of showing that different constructive means are used to represent the different ideologies of the two series. The chapter examines four major aspects of the 1948 War as represented by both series. It first describes the place of the 1948 War in the serial narrative of each series, concentrating on temporal and plot structures. It then proceeds to exhibit the modes each series uses to represent the Arab side. The third aspect it examines is the representation of the Palestinian refugee problem, while the last one shows the difference between the series in the treatment of major aspects of the Zionist ethos of the War. The chapter thus aims to give full insight into the concept each series presents of the War, as well as to illustrate the total inseparability of "form" from "content."

The 1948 War in the Serial Narrative of Each Series

The 1948 War is a central topic in both series but functions differently in each of them: while in POF it is the final and ultimate phase toward the yearned goal of a Jewish state, in TK it is an initial, traumatic event, with far-reaching implications for the years to come.

The Jewish/Israeli-Arab conflict is a central theme in POF. Its presence is gradually magnified as the series progresses. The Conflict is described as a total conflict between two sides: the Jewish community (Yishuv), which struggles to realize the Zionist vision of Jewish statehood, and the Arabs — of Palestine and the neighboring countries — and their leaders, whose purpose is to destroy the Zionist enterprise. The Conflict is present from the very start of the series' narrative. In chapter 2, "The Arabs Awaken," the attack on the Tel-Hai settlers in March 1920 is described, as well as the April 1920 Arab riots in Jerusalem, the first major violent attack perpetrated by Arab-Palestinians against Jews recorded in the series. The developing violent conflict is the central axis of the complex political struggle described in the series, which revolved on Jewish immigration and settlement and the emerging option of dividing the country between the adversaries.

The series elaborates on the Arabs' 1921 and 1929 riots and the 1936–39 revolt. It describes in detail the suffering and victims of Arab violence on the Jewish side, such as the massacre of 67 members of the historic Hebron community in August 1929. The Zionist legitimate response to the Arab violence, according to the series, was the creation of Jewish defensive organizations: Ha-Shomer (The Watchman) in 1909, the Haganah (Defense) in 1920 — and within it the Palmach (abbreviation of Strike Companies) in 1941 — which later transformed into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Representation of the Conflict culminates in the series' last three chapters: the Arabs' refusal to accept the November 29,1947, UN Resolution on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states and the declaration of war against its implementation. The series ends in May 1948 with the proclamation of the State of Israel. The war is still raging, but Israel's victory is imminent.

In TK the 1948 War is the first round in the swelling Israeli-Arab conflict, which is the central axis of the series. It is situated right after the prologue in chapter 1. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the battles of the war: the first presents the coping of the Yishuv and its defense forces with the first stages of the war — the November 1947 UN resolution on partition until May 1948 — while chapter 2 shows the continuation of the war after the establishment of the state and describes its heavy price in human losses (constituting one percent of the current Jewish population). Unlike POF,TK does not emphasize the story of two morally opposite parties, i.e., the Jewish one preoccupied with construction while the Arabs sought destruction. Rather, it depicts the War as the case of two sides entangled in a fatal struggle, for which both share the responsibility and from which both suffer heavily.

The temporal structure of the two series further clarifies the different functions of the 1948 War in each of them. The basis for the analysis here is Genette's typology, which analyzes what he entitles "tense," by showing the author's choices in the categories of "order," "duration," and "frequency." POF is found to be chronological and diachronic, as far as the order of events is concerned. It presents a complete linear narrative from beginning to end, which serves its overarching plot — "from Diaspora to National Revival." A discernible tendency of deceleration is identified from chapter 14 onward. Instead of the "summary" characterizing the first part of the series, with chapters covering periods of about ten years, a "slowdown" is observed toward the end. Chapters 17 and 18 cover about half a year each, and the final chapter 19 describes a period of less than two months. Thus the events between the UN resolution and the declaration of the State of Israel gain extra significance. The political victory of Zionism combined with the ultimate military struggle to protect the newly born state receive considerable "commemorative time" and are emphasized as the result and the objective of a long historical process.

TK's temporal structure is different and more complex: it is chronological and thematic at the same time. Chapters of the chronological axis deal with primary episodes in the Israeli-Arab conflict, starting with the 1948 War, then the 1956 Sinai War, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and so on. The thematic axis consists of chapters dealing with social and cultural processes, for example the great wave of immigration during the state's first decade, relations between Oriental and European Jews, religious and secular, Left and Right politics, etc. These chapters are integrated among those describing the Israeli-Arab conflict, but do not form a chronology. This complex structure portrays the constant interaction between the Israeli-Arab conflict and the socio-cultural processes in Israel. Ideologically it points to the fact that the main events of the conflict shaped Israeli society and identity and were influenced by it at the same time.

The period of 1947–49 is stretched out over two consecutive chapters, which form one dramatic unit. Moreover, analysis shows that about half of the series' chapters deal with the period around 1948 or start their narrative at that time. This highlights TKs perception of the 1948 War not only as a major turning point in Jewish-Israeli history but also as a formative event to which later developments can be traced back. Hence, while POF is teleological, aiming forward to the end of the narrative, to the attainment of the Zionist goal right after the awesome event of the 1948 War, TK is deterministic in that it repeatedly relates to that war as the source and point of departure, accounting for most of what followed in the coming decades.

A final aspect that concerns the serial narrative is the plot structure of each series, that is, the shaping of a series of historical events according to familiar plot structures, an act White names "emplotment." The creators of POF perfectly shaped it according to the classic plot structure, as described by Aristotle and others since. As mentioned, it consists of linear progress from beginning to end. It is basically a problem-solving structure: the protagonist, the Jewish people, looks for an answer to the situation of ever-present anti-Semitism and the destructive negativity of the Diaspora, culminating in the Holocaust. It overcomes many obstacles in seeking the goal of the renewal of sovereignty in its ancient homeland. Along the way, its chief antagonists are the Arabs. The protagonist and its goal are presented in chapter 1, entitled "Destination-Jerusalem"; the antagonist is immediately introduced in chapter 2. Throughout the series this binary opposition between Jews and Arabs, "good" and "evil," right and wrong, is emphasized.

The role of the "villain" does not remain faceless. By personalization of the evil the drama is strengthened, and the feelings of the spectators are directed as to whom to fear and hate and with whom to identify. The personality that arouses the strongest negative feelings is the leader of the Palestinian Arabs, the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. He is connected in the series only to harassment and killing of Jews, while his role in the Palestinian national movement is hardly mentioned. A devil in disguise, his "delicate" external appearance is described as totally contradictory to his "murderous" personality. He is repeatedly referred to as "the most fanatic, dangerous enemy of Zionism." His demonization is also carried out visually, by the use of slow-motion and freeze-frame. He is accused of tirelessly intensifying the Conflict, being the spirit behind the 1920 and 1929 riots against the Jews, and an uncompromising opponent of the partition of the country.

A most effective dramatic device used to strengthen the "villainy" of the Arabs is emphasizing their connections with the Nazi regime. The series elaborates on the sympathy and assistance offered by certain Arab leaders in the region to the German war effort. Palestinian Arabs are said to have hoped for the arrival of "Abu-Ali"-Rommel from the south. The Mufti offered himself as an ally to Mussolini and Hitler. He not only named Hitler "defender of the Islam" but, the series emphasizes, planned to solve "the Jewish problem" in Palestine using the Fuhrer's methods. The series emphasizes that the Mufti was later declared a war criminal. The great emphasis on those aspects of unity between the Nazis and the Arabs serves to further de-legitimize Arabs' national claims and mark them as absolute evil.

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Excerpted from The War Of 1948 by Avraham Sela, Alon Kadish. Copyright © 2016 Indiana University Press. Excerpted by permission of Indiana University Press.
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